Imac G5 w/isight Doesn't Start After Logic Board Change!!

I have the imac G5 17 inch with isight and about 4 months ago, I completely replaced the logic board. I believe the orginal had some busted capacitors or something. Anyway, when I initially start up my computer (after I insalled the logic board myself), the 1st thing that would happen when I turned the computer on was that a tiny little image in the center of the screen would flicker between a folder of a "mac" smily face and a question mark. After the flickering for a couple of seconds, the computer would eventually start up.

Fast forward to a couple of months...I noticed that my internet explorer and firefox would freeze up after the computer was put to sleep and then woke back up. The speed of the computer started going really slow to the point where I had to shut off the computer and start it back up...

Fast forward a couple of weeks ago....eventually the little image that would flicker back and forth for a few seconds at the beginning of start up would then switch to the apple logo and just sit there until the fans would start to blow. Sometimes it would switch to a white boot-up screen and I had to physically type the word "mac-boot" for the computer to start up.

Eventually, it got to the point (where I am right now) where I can't even start the computer up, the fans will just blow and I have to just shut it down. I would unplug it as to reset it. but I think I'm going to have to do something maybe a bit more drastic, and I know it has to do with the switching of the logic board. It is almost like the computer doesn't recognize it's "brain" and has thus created the issue.

Another thing I also noticed yesterday, as I made another attempt to turn my computer on, a circle with a cross (kinda like a "no smoking", or "Ghostbusters" logo) came up. At that point I just turned off the computer.


I'm a kind of fix it myself kind of guy, for the simple fact that I like to work on computers, and that I really don't have the money to buy a new one right now. So I'm hoping as "old" as this computer is, someone has maybe experienced the same thing and maybe can advise of a solution.

I think I may have to completely reboot my computer to its original settings, but I was hoping I could get on the computer one last time to back up my files that I have on the computer 1st. PLEASE HELP! Lol! I took pics, to give you a better visual! Thanks for whatever tips you can provide!

Nameci said:

What is in your harddrive cannot be read. it cannot find system files on your hard disk drive.

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What can I do about that to fix it?

666sheep said:

Did you try to boot your iMac from Install DVD? Perform disk verify/repair in Disk Utility (not permissions).
You can also try fsck in single user mode.
There may be a hardware problem too -> last picture indicates it. How frequently do you see this Open Firmware error screen?

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I only saw the open firmware error one time, the only time was when I took this picture. I haven't tried booting it from the Install DVD. I should try that and see what happens. I just hope it can boot up one last time so I can take all the files off. Would anyone recommend just reinstalling the mac...basically back to manufacturing settings? Could that help?

When you say the hard drive is dead, does that have to do with the logic boad I replaced in my computer? Can u bring a hard drive "back to life" or whould I have to actually replace the hard drive? I just want a clear understanding of the term "dead hard drive". I'm a rookie at all of this. Lol!

AdrianK said:

It sounds like the hard drive is slowly becoming more crippled as it's failing, should you get OS X to install on it (bringing it 'back to life') it will most likely conk-out after a couple of days use. But it's definitely worth a try (using the steps burnout8488 and 666sheep suggested).

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Right on. I will try some/all of this and get back to you guys. Thanks!